Piper Simmons
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You know why Godzilla is here? Because it knew Mechagodzilla was here. You've given it an aggression trigger. I know the EDF saves lives. I've seen you save plenty. But you can't stop picking fights. I know Godzilla is dangerous. I'm not stupid. But Godzilla's a part of our world. You can't fight that. The EDF keeps trying... and you keep losing. Everyone wants to make bigger guns or robots so they can be the one that finally kills Godzilla. Billions of dollars sunk into junk that doesn't work and blows up cities. Think of what that money could do put toward study? Or developing warning systems? Deterrents? That's why I don't want to join the EDF. I think we can do better.
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„
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— Piper to Lieutenant Tam Sauveterre about Godzilla and the EDF's cycle of conflict |
Piper Simmons is the protagonist of IDW Publishing's 2024 one-shot comic Godzilla: Valentine's Day Special. Once an unfulfilled data entry operator for the company TruComm, Piper became obsessed with monsters after surviving a Godzilla raid on San Diego, inspiring her to become an independent journalist who reported on both kaiju attacks and their underlying causes. One year into her new career, Piper had a chance encounter with Earth Defense Force lieutenant Tam Sauveterre in Singapore. Initially butting heads over their contrasting approaches to the kaiju threat, the two kept meeting on battlefields around the world and slowly fell in love, ultimately founding an organization dedicated to nonviolent response.
Personality
Piper is a headstrong, hardworking, cheeky individual with humanitarian ideals and risk-taking tendencies.
History
Godzilla: Valentine's Day Special
After earning a college degree, Piper Simmons took up a job as a data entry operator for TruComm in San Diego. As she mused about the drudgery of her work one day, she suddenly felt the office building shake. Thinking that an earthquake was the cause, Piper stood up and took off her headphones to find that the rest of the office had already evacuated. She groused at being left behind under she felt a stronger tremor—and watched Godzilla walk by just outside the office building. Awestruck, Piper fell to the floor as she witnessed the King of the Monsters swipe at the floors above her. Debris swiftly came down on Piper, knocking her unconscious for hours. By the time she revived, two firefighters had reached her floor, looking for survivors and bodies, and one of them noticed Piper. As the other radioed for a medic, the first told her that Godzilla had returned to the ocean. They brought her to a helicopter in a stretcher, where she was diagnosed with a moderate concussion and an oblique fracture of her left forearm. Noticing the ruins of San Diego out the window of the helicopter, Piper agreed with the medic that nothing would be the same afterwards. After making a recovery and returning home, she received a layoff email from TruComm which cited corporate restructuring caused by the Godzilla attack. She pondering applying to a similar company in the area, but realized the last time she felt alive was watching Godzilla. Inspired, she ran a search for "global godzilla sightings."
One year later, Piper rode a motorcycle through Singapore while the rest of the city ran in the opposite direction. She stopped to post an update online: both Godzilla and Anguirus were in the city. Once the post finished uploaded, she took off again. Seeing the path ahead blocked by a car crash, she leapt onto a fire escape, then winced as she heard her bike crash. Climbing to the rooftop, Piper pulled out her phone as she watched Godzilla and Anguirus begin their battle. Lost in thought about the monsters' combat history, Piper failed to notice debris flying towards her after Godzilla slammed Anguirus into the street nearby. Lieutenant Tam Sauveterre of the Earth Defense Force tackles her out of the way, leaving her briefly dazzled as they stand over her. Tam explained that they spotted her from a helicopter and urged her to evacuate. Just then, one of Tam's colleagues handed them Piper's phone, showing comments on her last post. Questioned by the lieutenant about her purpose, Piper explained that she was an observer who reported monster activity to a wide audience without bias. Tam disapproved of this, proclaiming that monsters were walking disasters and the only thing to report was the body count. Piper persisted, pointing to radiation leaks that had attracted the monsters and how military budgets had steadily increased ever since Godzilla first appeared. Tam stressed that the latter was in response to Godzilla and to save lives, though Piper was unimpressed with their results. Finding her foolish, Tam ended the argument and again demanded she leave; when she refused to leave, Tam put Piper on a helicopter. On the way there, Piper questioned EDF soldier Carlos about Tam's temperament, to which he responded that they were usually a sweetheart and must really must hate her. After being dropped off on a beach in Malaysia, Piper cursed as the helicopter departed.
Dismayed at how easily Tam had captured her, to say nothing of her second brush with death, Piper realized that she had to become more prepared to evade both kaiju and the EDF. She realized with satisfaction, however, that Tam probably mentioned her in their report, and she might develop a reputation. She indeed earned the respect of two EDF soldiers some time later for escaping Kumonga's web using a spray bottle full of acid; Tam listened to their glowing descriptions with irritation. Tam and Piper's paths continued to cross over the years, with the lieutenant keeping an eye out for her during kaiju attacks and the reporter using her fans' generous donations to stay one step ahead of them. Eventually, she came to wonder whether Tam was on assignment or looking for her of their own accord. When Rodan flew about a city, Tam and Kendra spotted Piper scaling a nearby building. Tam managed to handcuff Piper to a sink during another Godzilla attack, only for her to pick her cuffs and escape out a window as soon as Tam left the room. Piper came to Tam's rescue during a Hedorah incursion, tossing them a spare gas mask. When they were trapped under debris together during a King Ghidorah raid, Tam blamed Piper for their circumstances. Piper responded that she was trying to leave and questioned whether the EDF had anything better to do than harass a journalist who knew how to keep safe. To her surprise, Tam finally clarified that the EDF did not consider her a priority. Piper asked why Tam kept pursuing her, to which Tam replied that she was going to get herself killed. Piper was skeptical that Tam actually cared about her, only for them to rhetorically ask, "...is that so?" The EDF eventually rescued them, with Piper finding a way to slip away afterwards, and they avoided talking about Tam's confession in subsequent encounters.
Four years after Singapore, Piper came to Barcelona, Spain, to cover a battle between Godzilla and the EDF's Mechagodzilla. She ran from Tam as the battle commenced; when she refused to stop, Tam pulled a stun pistol on her. Tam declared that they were done humoring Piper's madness; the journalist retorted that shooting a civilian in a disaster zone could cost them their rank or even their job. Tam kept their pistol raised, determined to take Piper into custody for long enough to show the EDF what she could do, as Godzilla and Mechagodzilla locked beams above them. An energy ball generated by the beams' collision fell onto a nearby fuel tanker, igniting it in a powerful explosion that sent Piper and Tam flying. As the kaiju battle continued, Piper picked herself off the ground and called out to Tam. She found them alive but severely injured. The lieutenant asked her to leave them and escape, they joked that she wouldn't have to worry about them anymore. Unwilling to abandon them, Piper used her jacket tied to a car door to drag Tam away from the combat zone. Noticing Tam faltering from a likely concussion, Piper tried to keep them talking, saying they could ask her anything. Tam first questioned how she always seemed to know where the monsters would make landfall. Piper proudly answered that the monsters have patterns like any animal, responding to factors like ocean currents, tectonic activity, and recent armed conflicts. Tam was skeptical that Piper could make such determinations more accurately than the EDF's entire team, and asked next how she evaded the EDF. Piper simply replied that she listened to their radios after figuring our their encryption, with Tam's constant presence around her providing the necessary codes. They came upon an EDF van. When Piper asked Tam if they thought it would work, they dryly responded that she was the expert on EDF equipment. Piper then posed a more pointed question for Tam, asking their real motives for following her so closely for so long. Tam confessed that they had been following Piper out of admiration; reckless as she can be, her skills are incredible. They concluded that they wanted to recruit her for the EDF, infuriating her. Tam reasoned that she could do even greater things with the EDF's resources, which Piper refused. Tam reiterated that the EDF was not an army and saved lives; unconvinced, Piper brought their attention to the still ongoing fight between Godzilla and Mechagodzilla nearby, asking if that looked like saving lives. As she began to hotwire the van, Piper laid out her case. While she didn't deny that Godzilla was dangerous, she felt trying to kill him was futile, and the numerous attempts to do so over the years, including Mechagodzilla, only provoked him, leading to even greater destruction. She proposed that the billions spent on useless weapons would be better-served funding studies of the monsters, warning systems, and deterrents. In short, she was uninterested in joining the EDF because she believed that humanity could do better. Moved, Tam took her hand and asked what she had in mind.
Three years after Barcelona, Piper and Tam had married and founded an organization dedicated to nonviolent kaiju response. One morning, Piper gave her spouse, now in a wheelchair, a breakdown of the day ahead of them, sharing Godzilla's current whereabouts and motives as well as the status of Baragon, Megalon, Manda, and Rodan. After Tam swiftly directed the organization's course of action for each of the monsters aside from Godzilla, they asked Piper if they were forgetting anything, to which Piper answered that they forgot to kiss their wife that morning, a huge crisis. With Tam confidently declaring that crises were their specialty, Piper affectionately kissed them.
Gallery
Scans
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Piper witnessing her first Godzilla attack -
Piper three years post-Barcelona
Trivia
- Piper is the first queer original female character to appear in a Godzilla comic since Lucy Casprell and Kristina Sumres from Godzilla: Rulers of Earth.
- Piper has a tattoo of Godzilla's name in katakana on her right arm.
Comments
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